Which Self-Hosted Autoresponder is the Best in 2022?

featured image for the best self-hosted autoresponder comparison article showing a keyboard with a blue email button

Everybody talks about how great email marketing is. And it’s true.

Building a massive list in your niche and running decent email autoresponder campaigns can generate huge revenue.
However, they often don’t tell you about some of the headaches you’ll eventually face as your list gets bigger.

Rising cost per subscriber

Usually, when you’re starting, you’ll invest in an autoresponder service like Aweber, Mailchimp, or any one of the other popular cloud-based services. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s a wise choice since they’re affordable, convenient, and easy to use.

You probably end up paying a relatively comfortable $10 – $20 monthly fee to start building your list and marketing to them.

The problem is, once your list starts getting bigger, so does the monthly cost. And you can quickly find yourself paying a few hundred dollars every month when your subscriber numbers pass the 10 000 mark.

Having complete control over your assets

We’ve all heard the horror stories of people losing their incomes overnight. Some had their YouTube channels shut down, others had their Facebook pages or Instagram accounts banned. What they all had in common was building their ENTIRE business on other people’s property rather than their own.

So it’s better to invest in hosting and building a website you control. And not rely on social media properties that can get banned without warning.
The same can be said about your email list.
“Without warning, your account’s gone.”

Let’s say you’re an affiliate marketer who’s worked hard at building a profitable list with well over 100 000 subscribers. You wake up one day to find that your web-based autoresponder service has disabled your account.

Why?

Because they don’t cater to affiliate marketers with their service, so without warning, your account’s gone.

They never explicitly told you this when you started with them. You even know some other affiliates using their service with no issues. But it doesn’t matter. You’re banned.
Just like that, you’ve lost your entire list with no way of logging in to your account to export them.

Now, I’m not saying you should avoid a web-based email service. Not at all.

They usually have more features like advanced marketing automation. And I still prefer them to self-hosted autoresponders. GetResponse is my overall favorite autoresponder. In fact, it’s my best-rated autoresponder.

However, if you’re determined to:

keep your costs down
have complete control of your list

Then I’ll show you who I think is currently the best self hosted autoresponder.

What do I mean by a self-hosted autoresponder?

In this case, I’m talking about a program that runs on your own server and allows you to create, send, and manage emails to your subscribers.

It gives you a bit more freedom and control. However, you need some technical know-how to get it up and running. Luckily there are plenty of tutorials and YouTube videos showing you how.

With self-hosted email marketing software, you’re in total control of your list. And it won’t cost you an arm and a leg every month.

Usually, you only pay a one-time upfront fee for the product and then install it on your web hosting server. And, it’s yours to use forever.

You install it on your webserver to retain full access to your email list and data. And maintain complete control over your autoresponder campaigns and requirements.

The ideal option if you’re scared of losing access to your subscriber list and are tired of the increasing monthly costs of web-based services.

#1 Sendy – The Best Self-Hosted Autoresponder Software

Sendy is currently the top self-hosted autoresponder software on the market (in my opinion).

Its simple interface and easy-to-follow setup guide make it a joy to use. And immediately after setup, the software works as you’d expect.

You’re able to send thousands of emails to your subscribers for a fraction of the cost while enjoying excellent inboxing rates.
And, of course, you have complete control over your list and data.

Here are some of the critical features of the PHP-based Sendy that make it the best self-hosted autoresponder.

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)

“… leveraging the authority, reputation, and good standing of Amazon.”

Most self-hosted email marketing applications use your server’s SMTP functions to send emails. Although this isn’t a bad thing, setting this up incorrectly causes significant problems with your overall deliverability.

While Sendy does let you use any SMTP service of your choice, they are integrated with Amazon SES to send out all your emails.

Using Amazon SES makes a big difference because you’re now leveraging the authority, reputation, and good standing of Amazon when sending out emails. Meaning you get excellent inboxing and deliverability as a result.

Dirt Cheap Email Costs from Day 1, Even if You’re Sending Huge Volumes

Although this ties in with Amazon SES, it is a big enough benefit to list on its own.

Here’s the deal. If you’re going to send 10 000 emails, it can easily cost you a few hundred dollars with some of the popular subscription-based autoresponders.

Sending 10 000 emails with Sendy will cost you $1.

I can’t make it any more explicit than that. That’s a huge cost-saving.

screenshot showing how much you save using Sendy and Amazon SES to send bulk emails compared to other email marketing services

Segmentation and Reporting

A problem many self-hosted autoresponders have is their lack of features, features you’d expect from autoresponder software in 2022.

With Sendy, you’re getting detailed demographic and engagement reports on your subscribers’ interactions with your autoresponder campaigns.

You can see more insightful data too. For example, you can see who opens your emails the most and the subscribers who click the most links.

At first, this doesn’t seem too important. However, you can use this report data to create segments from your subscribers for a more targeted email campaign and better conversions.

Some other benefits you’ll see when using Sendy:

Why their GDPR features ensure you’re always compliant with new regulations
How complete list & subscriber management lets you quickly add and remove subscribers in bulk
Why using their white label allows you to effortlessly offer email autoresponder services to clients for an additional income
How automatic handling of complaints and bounces gives you hassle-free list management to maintain a good sending reputation
Why implementing their custom fields for segmentation and tagging will lead to more conversions
How being able to import lists without re-confirmation means you retain all your subscribers

Screenshot of Sendy's white-label feature

If you are ready to switch to a self-hosted autoresponder, look no further than Sendy.

Getting excellent delivery right from the start when sending thousands of emails is worth the cost alone.

And, speaking of costs, you’ll end up saving a fortune every month.

Try Sendy

Of all the self-hosted autoresponders I’ve researched so far, only Sendy is worthy of making it onto this list.

Some are too basic, with hardly any features. While others are too clunky to get set up.

However, if Sendy doesn’t feel like the right option, check back occasionally. I’ll keep this article updated with more options when I come across other reliable self-hosted email autoresponders.

Sendy is currently the best self-hosted email marketing software available. You can click on the button below to check them out.

You’ll see all the available features, other users’ feedback, as well as be able to grab it at its lowest price if you like what you see.

If you are in the market for a self-hosted email marketing tool, it’s a no-brainer. Sendy is currently the best, and at such a low price, it’s well worth it.